Welsh Journals

bibliography and a few cogent documents, plus 8 pages of (rather fuzzy) plates-citing George Owen, the Wynns and the Stradlings and inter- mingling the conclusions of Professor Glanmor Williams and Dr. Penry Williams, among many others, gives a clear account of and commentary on the institutions and offices through which the Elizabethan state sought to reduce Wales to something like uniformity and, indeed, unity with the rest of the realm. Dr. Jones reminds us 'that any assessment of the success or failure of Elizabethan government in Wales must be seen in the context of government and society in England and Wales as a whole'. He demon- strates this so effectively that his book can be recommended to any student of the Tudor period generally, even one whose interest in Welsh history per se is minimal. Both countries were dominated by magnates and gentry. The former, although like the earls of Leicester and Pembroke they might have extensive estates in Wales, in their desire to maintain their post at court saw almost everything through English spectacles. Consequently, the Welsh gentry, their clients, were bound to be resonant to developments within the larger nation. What is surprising is not that the gentry were becoming anglicized but that the process, which of course had begun well before the first Elizabeth, was not in fact quicker and deeper. The point is that while the gentry were employed as unpaid agents for a centralising state-JPs, sheriffs, deputy lieutenants-on the whole they used and abused their position in the pursuit of what were basically local interests-family rivalries, county patronage, consolidation of their estates. Ironically, it was precisely their local Welsh influence which made them seem of value to the government, just as in the north of England, the Council there had to have a president and councillors with strong grass-root interests. In Wales the gentry's ambivalence of outlook is of particular significance in connexion with the language. English was the medium of administration, Welsh of the community. It was still possible for a gentleman to appreciate both tongues and some of the most ambitious in the one were among the most cultivated in the other. If Wales had had a capital city and a university instead of Ludlow and Jesus College, Oxford, the process of anglicization might have been more protracted, though perhaps inexorable. A brief notice cannot do justice to Dr. Jones's range of topics. They include defence (as Henry VII well knew, Wales could be 'the soft under- belly 'of Britain), piracy, riots, parliamentary elections-how much poorer Sir John Neale's The Elizabethan House of Commons would have been without those splendid Welsh disputes-and religion. On them all he is intelligent, thoughtful, well-read and enlightening. With him 'A New History of Wales' gets off to a very good start. IVAN ROOTS Exeter LIFE AND TRADITION IN RURAL WALES. By J. Geraint Jenkins. Dent, 1976. Pp. 192. £ 7.50. Although some of the material brought together in this book has appeared in various previous works by the author, it is nevertheless